Ray Stalker: He helped jets reach for the stars

17 February 2014 — 3:00am

As a boy, Ray Stalker talked about building a rocket ship to Mars. As an adult, the search for a way to make space travel more accessible to the public became the primary purpose of his career. He was Australia's first professor of space engineering and a pioneer of the world's fastest jet engines, the scramjet.

Raymond John Stalker was born in Dimboola, Victoria, on August 6, 1930, one of four children to Jack Stalker, an egg merchant, and his wife Dorothy (nee Nettlebeck), a seamstress. He won a scholarship to Geelong Grammar, a scholarship to Melbourne University, then a scholarship to the University of Sydney, which was then the only Australian university offering a degree in aeronautical engineering.

Space odyssey: Ray Stalker was a pioneer in research for hypersonic flight.

He took a BSc in 1951 with the university medal in aeronautical engineering and the de Havilland prize in aeronautics. He then completed his masters of engineering science in 1955 and a PhD in 1957. Also in 1955, Stalker married Judy Taylor.

In 1958 the Stalkers moved to Canada for his work. They returned to Australia for Ray to take up a readership in physics at the ANU in 1962.

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He began working on a way of researching flight at very high speeds, or ''hypervelocity aerodynamics''. During the 1960s he designed the first high-performance shock tubes, used for testing aircraft technology and aerodynamics at supersonic speeds.

Optimistic about the future of space travel, Stalker won a bet with a British colleague about how soon there would be a moon landing. Whoever lost the bet had to wear a spacesuit to work for a week, and the colleague duly obliged in 1969.

In 1977, Stalker moved to the University of Queensland to become professor in mechanical engineering, then, in 1988, Australia's first professor of space engineering. During his time at UQ, Stalker developed a series of shock tubes, known as ''Stalker tubes'', that allowed researchers to test new engine and spacecraft designs, and his skills and facilities were in great demand by international aerospace agencies such as NASA, DERA (British) and DLR (German).

During the 1980s Stalker started pioneering work on developing scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) technology - a supersonic air-breathing engine. Scramjets have the potential to revolutionise both space and air travel, offering the possibility of flying from Australia to Europe in four hours, and to create ''task'' spacecraft that are more economical than the Space Shuttle.

Stalker built up a research group, the Centre for Hypersonics, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the university and led pioneering work on scramjet technology until the late 1990s, when he went into semi-retirement after a stroke.

Stalker earned many accolades and honours during his career, including being made an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2003.

On being inducted as the only Australian fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2001, Stalker said: ''I am most interested in space planes. If they come good, it will change the world.''

Stalker was always quick to acknowledge the work of his research group, and the collaborative effort behind his achievements. Even after retirement, he continued to be involved with his research group and contribute to realising his vision of an affordable Australian space program.

Stalker's life work laid the foundations for a respected Australian presence in hypersonic aerodynamics.

''I think it will change the future of the human race'' he said, on being awarded the ATSE Clunies Ross National Award in 2008. ''On Earth we're clearly beginning to run into limits on the amount of energy we can use … out in space there's all the energy you want, and the small contribution we've made … is a help along the way."

During the last few months of his life Stalker was awarded an honorary fellowship of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the world's highest distinction for aerospace achievement.

Ray Stalker is survived by Judy and daughters Jennifer, Sandra and Caroline.

A service for Ray Stalker will be held at Centenary Memorial Gardens, 353 Wacol Station Road, Sumner, Brisbane at 10am on February 17.